Igor Stravinsky | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/igor-stravinsky
Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voiceen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017Thu, 14 Dec 2017 01:10:19 GMT2017-12-14T01:10:19Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Rambert review – Ben Duke's dance to the death is a searingly emotional joyridehttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/nov/22/rambert-review-ben-duke-sadlers-wells
<p><strong>Sadler’s Wells, London<br></strong>Inspired by the onstage intensity of Nina Simone, the centrepiece of this triple bill blurs real life and performance to spectacular effect</p><p>What does it mean when dancers express emotion on stage? Do they bring real-life experiences to those highly choreographed moments when they’re leaping with ecstasy, racked by grief or, as in the climax of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, dancing themselves to death on behalf of a fearful, threatened community? These are some of the questions posed by Goat, the raw, funny and occasionally searing new piece of dance theatre that <a href="http://lostdogdance.co.uk/ben-duke">Ben Duke</a> has made for <a href="http://www.rambert.org.uk/">Rambert</a>.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/oct/18/dancers-didnt-speak-to-merce-cunningham-like-this-ben-dukes-backstage-rambert-diary">'Dancers didn’t speak to Merce Cunningham like this!': Ben Duke's backstage Rambert diary</a> </p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/nov/20/kyle-abraham-pavement-review-sadlers-wells">Kyle Abraham: Pavement review – dancing in handcuffs with aggression and grace</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/nov/22/rambert-review-ben-duke-sadlers-wells">Continue reading...</a>DanceStageCultureRambertIgor StravinskyNina SimoneWed, 22 Nov 2017 14:03:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/nov/22/rambert-review-ben-duke-sadlers-wellsPhotograph: Tristram Kenton for the GuardianPhotograph: Tristram Kenton for the GuardianJudith Mackrell2017-11-22T14:03:00ZWorks for Two Pianos CD review – Stravinsky cast in new colourshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/18/stravinsky-works-for-two-pianos-cd-review-praga-digitalis
<p>John-Patrick Millow, Bernard Job, Vitya Vronsky, Victor Babin, Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky<br>(Praga Digitalis)</p><p>These works by Stravinsky for two pianos are performed by three foremost duos of the past, French, Russian and German, dating from 1961 to 1991. The centrepiece is <em>The Rite of Spring</em>, brilliantly arranged and played (on a Bösendorfer) by French duo John-Patrick Millow (1953-1996) with Bernard Job. Stravinsky’s shrill, rhythmic energies are cast in new colours, with piano as glittering percussion instrument. The Russian husband-and-wife duo, Vitya Vronsky and Victor Babin, performs the Concerto for Two Pianos (on a Steinway). The German brothers, Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky, play the Tango (arr. Babin) and the Sonata for two Pianos. This is a fascinating disc, full of riches. The sound is clear and vivid.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/18/stravinsky-works-for-two-pianos-cd-review-praga-digitalis">Continue reading...</a>Igor StravinskyClassical musicMusicCultureSun, 18 Jun 2017 06:59:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/18/stravinsky-works-for-two-pianos-cd-review-praga-digitalisPhotograph: Alamy Stock PhotoPhotograph: Alamy Stock PhotoFiona Maddocks2017-06-18T06:59:00ZThe Soldier's Tale review – City of London Sinfonia make Stravinsky's devilish piece too well manneredhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/06/the-soldiers-tale-review-city-of-london-sinfonia-village-underground
<p><strong>Village Underground, London <br></strong>Despite the efforts of Simon Russell Beale and Janet Suzman, this concert performance lacked theatricality and felt too comfortable<br></p><p>Inclusiveness is a major part of the artistic mission of the <a draggable="true" href="https://cityoflondonsinfonia.co.uk/">City of London Sinfonia</a>, who take their performances into communities and venues around Britain that are outside the regular circuit of concert halls. That brought the orchestra, or seven of its members, at least, to Village Underground in Shoreditch, east London, for the final event of its current season: a performance of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with Simon Russell Beale as narrator, <a draggable="true" href="https://twitter.com/ivannojeremiah?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Ivanno Jeremiah</a> as the Soldier and <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/aug/20/janet-suzman-actor-saturday-interview">Janet Suzman</a> as the Devil.</p><p>Suzman was credited as director of the show, too, though this seemed to be a straight concert performance of a piece that Stravinsky and his librettist CF Ramuz devised to be “read, played and danced”. Intended as a cheap, easily portable dramatic reworking of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Afanasyev">Afanasyev</a>’s Russian folk story, The Soldier’s Tale is effectively music theatre in kit form; a text-linked sequence of self-contained musical numbers and dramatic tableaux that can accommodate a whole range of interpretations, depending on the budget. It showed that music drama did not need to come with all the expensive trappings of opera, and it became hugely influential later in the 20th century. It was one of the models, alongside <a draggable="true" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsIATAaR-X0">Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire,</a> for the composers of the 1960s and 70s who were looking to invent a new, stripped-down form of music theatre.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/06/the-soldiers-tale-review-city-of-london-sinfonia-village-underground">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicSimon Russell BealeCultureMusicStageIgor StravinskyThu, 06 Apr 2017 12:09:47 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/06/the-soldiers-tale-review-city-of-london-sinfonia-village-undergroundPhotograph: James BerryPhotograph: James BerryAndrew Clements2017-04-06T12:09:47ZBausch, Forsythe, Van Manen review – a company awakeninghttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/26/bausch-forsythe-van-manen-english-national-ballet-triple-bill-review-tamara-rojo
<p><strong>Sadler’s Wells, London</strong><br>English National Ballet’s latest triple bill offers a chance for company dancers to shine. Some hesitate, but others seize their moment</p><p>In the five years since she was made artistic director of English National Ballet, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/tamara-rojo">Tamara Rojo</a> has remade the company, introducing challenging new work and promoting a new generation of soloists and principals. Her latest programme offers pieces by three of the 20th century’s most influential choreographers: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/07/in-the-middle-somewhat-elevated-william-forsythe-dance">William Forsythe</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/may/15/hans-van-manen-review">Hans van Manen</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jul/01/pina-bausch-obituary-dance">Pina Bausch</a>. ENB are the first British company to perform <em>Le Sacre du printemps</em> (<em>The Rite of Spring</em>) by Bausch, a notable coup for Rojo.</p><p>The triple bill will run at Sadler’s Wells until Saturday, and the fact that it is not playing outside London is a reminder of the hard economics underpinning a major-scale ballet company. At ENB, the books are balanced by touring classical story ballets such as <em>Le Corsaire </em>and <em>Coppélia</em>, and by a long winter <em>Nutcracker</em> season. So it’s good to see the dancers cutting loose in less traditional fare. It’s clearly liberating for them, but evenings like this also offer audiences the chance to see company members in a different context. Dancers who might spend most of their year performing as part of the ensemble, as pirates in <em>Le Corsaire </em>or Rhineland villagers in <em>Giselle</em>, can find themselves suddenly and strikingly foregrounded. Ballet careers are all about seizing the moment, about taking the chance when it presents itself.</p><p>There are no ballet buns or pointe shoes in evidence, but verticality and balletic femininity are harder to shed</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/26/bausch-forsythe-van-manen-english-national-ballet-triple-bill-review-tamara-rojo">Continue reading...</a>DanceEnglish National BalletBalletPina BauschTamara RojoSadler's WellsIgor StravinskyLudwig van BeethovenStageCultureSun, 26 Mar 2017 07:00:24 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/26/bausch-forsythe-van-manen-english-national-ballet-triple-bill-review-tamara-rojoPhotograph: Laurent LiotardoPhotograph: Laurent LiotardoLuke Jennings2017-03-26T07:00:24ZPhilharmonia/Salonen review – superb UK premiere for rediscovered Stravinskyhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/21/philharmonia-salonen-review-uk-premiere-stravinsky-funeral-song-aimard
<p><strong>Royal Festival Hall, London</strong> <br>Funeral Song, honouring the composer’s teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, led a night that also delivered powerhouse Ligeti from pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard </p><p>In later life, Stravinsky maintained that Funeral Song, written in 1908 as a memorial to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, was his finest work before Firebird. The score, left behind in St Petersburg at the time of his emigration, was believed lost, however, until 2015, when a set of orchestral parts were discovered in the library of the St Petersburg State Conservatory. Valery <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/03/stravinsky-funeral-song-valery-gergiev-maryinsky-st-petersburg">Gergiev conducted its first modern outing at the Mariinsky</a> last year. <a href="http://www.esapekkasalonen.com/">Esa-Pekka Salonen</a> opened Sunday’s <a href="http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/venue/60/london_royal_festival_hall?gclid=CP-01LCwntICFbcW0wod4BwDcQ">Philharmonia</a> concert with a superb UK premiere.</p><p>Stravinsky claimed that the piece represented the idea “that all the solo instruments of the orchestra filed past the tomb of the master in succession”, and the work is dominated by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmgd99FxpNU">a grieving melody</a>, first heard on the horn, then passed in slow, steady progression from instrument to instrument. Shivering low string tremolandos, suggestive of Russian Orthodox church music, pre-empt the opening of Firebird, and there are echoes of Wagner in the brass chords that bring the processional to its eventual close. It’s a work of great nobility.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/21/philharmonia-salonen-review-uk-premiere-stravinsky-funeral-song-aimard">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicThe Philharmonia OrchestraEsa-Pekka SalonenCultureMusicIgor StravinskyTue, 21 Feb 2017 14:55:19 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/21/philharmonia-salonen-review-uk-premiere-stravinsky-funeral-song-aimardPhotograph: Hiroyuki Ito/Photograph: Hiroyuki Ito/Getty IPhotograph: Hiroyuki Ito/Photograph: Hiroyuki Ito/Getty ITim Ashley2017-02-21T14:55:19ZWolfgang Rihm and this week’s best UK classical concertshttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/feb/17/wolfgang-rihm-and-this-weeks-best-uk-classical-concerts
<p>Plus: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts in Philharmonia premieres and David McVicar directs Pelléas Et Mélisande</p><p>There’s never a shortage of works by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2012/sep/24/tom-service-guide-wolfgang-rihm">Wolfgang Rihm</a> that are still to be heard in Britain. Few composers working today can match his rate of productivity, and his list of pieces now stands around the 400 mark. The latest to get its first UK airing is Rihm’s Second Piano Concerto, which was first performed in 2014. Nicolas Hodges is the soloist.<br><em><a href="http://www.barbican.org.uk/">Barbican Hall, EC2, 22 February</a></em></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/feb/17/wolfgang-rihm-and-this-weeks-best-uk-classical-concerts">Continue reading...</a>CultureMusicClassical musicOperaScottish OperaEsa-Pekka SalonenIgor StravinskyThe Philharmonia OrchestraFri, 17 Feb 2017 11:30:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/feb/17/wolfgang-rihm-and-this-weeks-best-uk-classical-concertsPhotograph: Marco BorggrevePhotograph: Marco BorggreveAndrew Clements2017-02-17T11:30:08ZLost Stravinsky piece performed for first time since rediscoveryhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/03/stravinsky-funeral-song-valery-gergiev-maryinsky-st-petersburg
<p>Electric atmosphere as Valery Gergiev conducts Funeral Song at Maryinsky concert hall in St Petersburg</p><p>Igor Stravinsky’s <em tabindex="-1">Funeral Song</em> for orchestra has had to wait almost 108 years for a second performance. But the work has at last made it after the lost materials resurfaced in a St Petersburg Conservatoire house move last year, chiefly thanks to the tireless exertions of one of the Conservatoire professors, Natalya Braginskaya.</p><p>After protracted haggling over rights between the Conservatoire, the Stravinsky estate and his publisher, Boosey and Hawkes, a score was finally put together from the recovered orchestral parts. On Friday, Valery Gergiev conducted the first performance since January 1909, in a late-night concert in the Maryinsky concert hall here in St Petersburg.<br tabindex="-1"></p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/06/igor-stravinsky-lost-work-emerges-after-100-years">Key Igor Stravinsky work found after 100 years</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/03/stravinsky-funeral-song-valery-gergiev-maryinsky-st-petersburg">Continue reading...</a>Igor StravinskyClassical musicCultureMusicRussiaEuropeWorld newsSat, 03 Dec 2016 17:18:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/03/stravinsky-funeral-song-valery-gergiev-maryinsky-st-petersburgPhotograph: Roger Viollet/REX ShutterstockPhotograph: Roger Viollet/REX ShutterstockStephen Walsh2016-12-03T17:18:14ZStravinsky: Petrushka, Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Orpheus CD review – elegant and colourfulhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/25/stravinsky-petrushka-wind-instruments-orpheus-cd-review-lpo-jurowski
<p>LPO/Jurowski<br>(LPO)</p><p>V<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2010/jul/04/vladimir-jurowski-don-giovanni-fiona-maddocks">ladimir Jurowski</a> has been principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2007 and what comes across brilliantly on this new Stravinsky disc – recorded live in concert in 2014 and 2015 – is how focused and un-faffy he and the orchestra sound together by now. The playing is bright and elegant – occasionally too much so. Petrushka (the original 1911 version) is short on crazed energy and urban hubbub, but instead we get chamber-like clarity and a really crisp sense of the score’s architecture. Orpheus has a sombre, stately beauty, and the Symphonies of Wind Instruments is performed in the original version, with alto flute and alto clarinet giving excitingly mellow, gooey textures. Stravinsky described the piece as “an austere ritual” but also dedicated it to Debussy, and this performance clinches that balance between solemn observance and splendid colours. Best of all are the strange closing chorales, full of quiet, attentive poise. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/25/stravinsky-petrushka-wind-instruments-orpheus-cd-review-lpo-jurowski">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicIgor StravinskyMusicCultureThu, 25 Aug 2016 15:00:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/25/stravinsky-petrushka-wind-instruments-orpheus-cd-review-lpo-jurowskiPhotograph: Chris Christodoulou/BBC/Chris ChristodoulouPhotograph: Chris Christodoulou/BBC/Chris ChristodoulouKate Molleson2016-08-25T15:00:14ZA musical tour of Europe’s great cities: Parishttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/14/musical-tour-europe-great-cities-paris
<p>In the second of a new series, Stephen Moss traverses Paris through the musicians who lived and loved there; give us your suggestions for next week’s city, Venice, below</p><p>Our post-referendum celebration of the richness of European life – yes, you guessed it, I am not a fan of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/12/theresa-may-brexit-talks-eu-after-summer-martin-schulz">Brexit</a> – moves on this week to Paris, and I’m happy to say that, as I’d hoped, you have done all the work for me with a set of excellent suggestions. Crowdsourcing is definitely the future. In fact, the present.</p><p>This is primarily a classical music blog (whatever “classical” music is – I detest the term), but it would be impossible to do a piece about music in Paris without mentioning Edith Piaf, a fixture at Olympia – the great concert hall in the French capital – for almost 30 years. @<a href="https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/12675798">Oldiebutgoodie</a> suggests her signature tune, La Vie en Rose, which is fine by me. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/14/musical-tour-europe-great-cities-paris">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicMusicCitiesCultureMiles DavisCole PorterWolfgang Amadeus MozartIgor StravinskyParisThu, 14 Jul 2016 10:31:07 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/14/musical-tour-europe-great-cities-parisPhotograph: Stephane Mahe/REUTERSPhotograph: Stephane Mahe/REUTERSStephen Moss2016-07-14T10:31:07ZStravinsky: Threni; Requiem Canticles CD review – superb glimpse of late masterpieceshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/06/stravinsky-threni-requiem-canticles-cd-review-philippe-herreweghe-collegium-gent-royal-flemish-phi
<p>Collegium Vocale Gent/Royal Flemish PO/Herreweghe<br>(PHI)</p><p>Though <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/igor-stravinsky">Stravinsky</a> must rank among the most recorded of all 20th-century composers, the music he wrote in the last decade of his creative life remains relatively little explored. Philippe Herreweghe’s recording with <a draggable="true" href="http://www.collegiumvocale.com/nl">Collegium Vocale Gent</a> of Threni, the 1958 settings of texts from the Old Testament Lamentations of Jeremiah, seems to be only the third in almost 60 years of what was the first and most substantial of Stravinsky’s completely serial works. Requiem Canticles, from 1966, his last major work, which is paired with it here, has appeared on disc only a handful of times too.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_Canticles">Requiem Canticles</a> may be a wonderfully compressed, almost aphoristic example of Stravinsky’s spare, acerbic late style – the longest of its nine movements lasts only two and a half minutes – but <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/may/01/stravinsky">Threni</a> is an even greater masterpiece, which deserves a place among his finest achievements. Herreweghe’s superb performance leaves no doubt about that, and his singers and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic make light of the challenges in what is still a fearsomely difficult score to perform. What emerges so clearly, too, is the Russian-ness that remained an indelible part of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2011/apr/06/celebrate-igor-stravinsky">Stravinsky</a>’s music throughout his composing life, however much it shifted stylistically. In Threni there are hints of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_noces">Les Noces</a> (completed in 1921) in the way the solo voices and choir relate to each other and in the rhythmic chanting of some passages, while there are echoes of the even earlier <a draggable="true" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renard_%28Stravinsky%29">Renard</a> and Symphonies of Wind Instruments in the primary-coloured textures extracted from an orchestra that includes flugelhorn and <a draggable="true" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Conn_Sarrusophone_c1850.jpg/200px-Conn_Sarrusophone_c1850.jpg">sarrusophone</a>.<br tabindex="-1"></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/06/stravinsky-threni-requiem-canticles-cd-review-philippe-herreweghe-collegium-gent-royal-flemish-phi">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicChoral musicIgor StravinskyWed, 06 Jul 2016 14:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/06/stravinsky-threni-requiem-canticles-cd-review-philippe-herreweghe-collegium-gent-royal-flemish-phiPhotograph: Ullstein Bild/ullstein bild via Getty ImagesPhotograph: Ullstein Bild/ullstein bild via Getty ImagesAndrew Clements2016-07-06T14:00:00ZStravinsky Myths & Rituals: Philharmonia – reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/05/stravinsky-myths-and-rituals-philharmonia-review
<strong>St John’s Smith Square, London</strong><br />A collection of rarely performed pieces inspired by the composer’s Russian Orthodox faith made for essential listening<p>Stravinsky’s relationship to the Russian Orthodox faith of his childhood was complex. Having left Russia in 1914, he reconverted in 1926, not least because for him Russian would always be the language of prayer. In the third of an exceptional Stravinsky series, <em>Myths &amp; Rituals</em>, the Philharmonia and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/23/esa-pekka-salonen-conductor-composer-facing-the-music" title="">Esa-Pekka Salonen</a> turned to the composer’s faith, from the last decades of his long life, with performances of the <em>Requiem Canticles</em>, <em>Mass</em>, <em>Introitus (T S Eliot In Memoriam)</em>, <em>In Memoriam Dylan Thomas</em>, <em>Elegy for JFK</em> and <em>Cantata</em>. These works, some of the most precious in the repertoire – Stravinsky’s or anyone else’s – are hardly heard in the concert hall.</p><p>In every respect this was imaginative programming. Without gimmick and using a few simple devices – low lighting, the sound of bells, a waft of incense – St John’s Smith Square had acquired the atmosphere of Orthodox St Petersburg. The point, perfectly achieved, was to allow the music to be performed without interruption. All lightly scored, these short pieces allowed the Philharmonia to shine as soloists, and the Philharmonia Voices too. In the <em>Cantata</em> (1951-52), a collaboration with WH Auden, the tenor Allan Clayton captured unforgettably every arcane glimmer and nuance of the Westron Wind lament. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted with clarity, authority and conviction. He is one of the UK’s greatest musical assets – words not said lightly. The concert, essential listening, is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07cyp0d" title="">on BBC Radio 3</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/05/stravinsky-myths-and-rituals-philharmonia-review">Continue reading...</a>Igor StravinskyClassical musicMusicCultureThe Philharmonia OrchestraSun, 05 Jun 2016 06:59:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/05/stravinsky-myths-and-rituals-philharmonia-reviewPhotograph: Camilla GreenwellPhotograph: Camilla GreenwellFiona Maddocks2016-06-05T06:59:33ZThe shock of the new: how classical music turned atonalhttps://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/may/20/the-shock-of-the-new-how-classical-music-turned-atonal
<p>Guardian member <strong>John Keenan </strong>reviews The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross, a study of how classical music reflected the 20th century’s cultural and political upheavals</p><p>The torrent of music unleashed by streaming services threatens to engulf the listener. We need a guide to ensure we avoid the reefs and sandbars that could capsize our enthusiasm. </p><p>A new book, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/18/every-song-ever-listen-music-now-ben-ratliff-review">Every Song Ever</a>, by the New York Times critic Ben Ratliff, offers cunning methods of linking disparate genres. But for a life-changing examination of how classical music in the 20th century can encompass and reflect the cultural and political upheavals of its time, Alex Ross’s magisterial survey <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/03/guardian-first-book-alex-ross-rest-is-noise">The Rest is Noise</a> is truly essential reading. </p><p>If the book has a unifying theme, it might be the strange death of hummable tunes.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/may/20/the-shock-of-the-new-how-classical-music-turned-atonal">Continue reading...</a>MembershipAlex RossFrank ZappaBjörkKarlheinz StockhausenBooksCultureMusicSex PistolsIgor StravinskyClassical musicFri, 20 May 2016 08:00:35 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/may/20/the-shock-of-the-new-how-classical-music-turned-atonalPhotograph: Lisa CarpenterPhotograph: Lisa CarpenterJohn Keenan2016-05-20T08:00:35ZPhilharmonia/Salonen – an electrifying start to their Stravinsky seasonhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/16/philharmoniasalonen-an-electrifying-start-to-their-stravinsky-season
<p><strong>Royal Festival Hall, London<br></strong>The Stravinsky: Myths and Rituals series began with new choreography for Agon and a revelatory Rite of Spring</p><p>The brainchild of conductor <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/23/esa-pekka-salonen-conductor-composer-facing-the-music">Esa-Pekka Salonen</a> and musicologist <a href="http://www.music.ox.ac.uk/about/people/academic-staff/university-lecturers-and-college-fellows/jonathan-cross/">Jonathan Cross</a>, Stravinsky: Myths and Rituals is a big <a href="http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/series/42/stravinsky_myths_and_rituals?gclid=CLTfgNuV3swCFXMz0wodaQAEiA">Philharmonia</a> retrospective that dominates the orchestra’s schedule until the end of the current season and then onwards into September. The series examines Stravinsky’s complex relationships with classicism and modernism in his middle and late compositional periods, explores the influences of myth and folklore on his work post-Diaghilev, and surveys his collaboration with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/georgebalanchine">George Balanchine</a>, itself crucial to the history of 20th-century dance. Later concerts will allow us to listen to music more talked about than heard, such as Orpheus, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYlo6NsiUec">Perséphone</a>, and Requiem Canticles. Salonen opened, however, with Fanfare for Three Trumpets, Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Agon, followed by The Rite of Spring.</p><p>The first three works were precariously run together in a single unbroken sequence, and Agon, contentiously perhaps, was supplied with new choreography by <a href="http://www.armitagegonedance.org/karole-armitage/biography">Karole Armitage</a>, performed by her company, <a href="http://www.armitagegonedance.org/">Armitage Gone! Dance</a>. The Fanfares, themselves derived from the original sketches for Agon, segued nicely into <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG_fpe-ZTXE">Symphonies of Wind Instruments</a>. One of Stravinsky’s most uncompromising works, the latter dates from 1920. Echoes of Russian Orthodox church music and The Rite of Spring mourn both a country and a world of musical possibilities from which Stravinsky was separated by the first world war. Salonen judged its concentrated austerities of sound and gesture nicely, and it was scrupulously played. Distraction was provided, however, by Armitage’s dancers arriving on the narrow platform behind the orchestra shortly before its close.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/may/05/classical-concerts-opera-summer-2016-john-luther-adams-iain-banks">The best classical concerts and opera of summer 2016</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/16/philharmoniasalonen-an-electrifying-start-to-their-stravinsky-season">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicThe Philharmonia OrchestraEsa-Pekka SalonenIgor StravinskyMon, 16 May 2016 11:53:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/16/philharmoniasalonen-an-electrifying-start-to-their-stravinsky-seasonPhotograph: PRPhotograph: PRTim Ashley2016-05-16T11:53:33ZEven Stravinsky fails to impress Guardian critic - archive, 5 May 1920https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/05/stravinsky-ragtime-classical-music-critic-guardian
<p><strong>5 May 1920: </strong>Our critic claims ‘no one seems to have understood’ Stravinsky’s new work <br></p><p>The charm of London is that there you can hear all sorts of things. Extremes meet here as they never do in the provinces. I had the good fortune the other day to hear the worst bit of alleged singing I have ever come across in the whole of my professional career. It was so utterly, hopelessly bad that one could not escape the absurd fascination of it. One simply sat there and wondered at the sublime lack of self-knowledge that made it possible for anyone with so little voice, so little training, and so little knowledge of singing to go upon a public platform. It is as if I, who have hardly had a paint-brush in my hands all my life, were to have the impudence to send a painting anywhere but to the Royal Academy. </p><p>It surely cannot have been as bad as this before the war. I take it that what has happened is that a number of young men who are genuinely fond of music, but whose vocal training was interrupted by the war, now feel reluctant to spend years in acquiring the technique of singing, and think that they can pull through by sheer intelligence. They deceive themselves sadly, even when they have the intelligence; and if their friends have any influence with them they should dissuade them from making such woeful public exhibitions of incompetence as we have had here once or twice lately.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/05/stravinsky-ragtime-classical-music-critic-guardian">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicIgor StravinskyThu, 05 May 2016 04:00:41 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/05/stravinsky-ragtime-classical-music-critic-guardianPhotograph: Ray Fisher/Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagePhotograph: Ray Fisher/Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImageErnest Newman2016-05-05T04:00:41ZFrom the archive September 1913: On Stravinsky, the most abused musician in Londonhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/12/from-the-archive-stravinsky-firebird-suite-review-1913
<p><strong>From the archive, 5 September 1913</strong>: ‘We may like it or not, but surely in his search for new expressions, there is something of genius’</p><p><strong>London, Thursday night</strong><br>Igor Stravinsky has had the distinction of being the most abused musician in London. Critics who can find an apology for all the exploits of Strauss, who tolerate Debussy and patronise Reger, had only sarcasm and scorn for the Russian composer. And yet to-night again, when Sir Henry J. Wood introduced Stravinsky’s Suite “L’Oiseau de Feu” one felt that something may be said for this innovator. In the audience at, any rate, there seemed to be many for whom this music had no terror. </p><p>Possibly there were men who knew no better, or it may be urged that this Suite is less bold an experiment than “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2013/mar/26/rest-is-noise-stravinsky-reviews-archive">Le Sacre du Printemps</a>,” which caused such a carnival of abuse last spring. But for all that the two pieces are unquestionably the result of the same process of reasoning. In one work as in the other, it is clear that Stravinsky, bent on eschewing the ways of others, has worked out a system which in “Le Sacre du Printemps” is carried to its extreme limits, while in “L’Oiseau” it is sometimes a little less uncompromising and also less sure in touch and effect. Now, for all the boldness and the novelty, Stravinsky’s system is not nearly as startling as Debussy’s appeared to be when first it came to us.</p><p>In the department of rhythm he is the greatest master that has arisen since Beethoven</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/12/from-the-archive-stravinsky-firebird-suite-review-1913">Continue reading...</a>Igor StravinskyClassical musicCultureMusicTue, 12 Apr 2016 11:00:07 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/12/from-the-archive-stravinsky-firebird-suite-review-1913Photograph: Roger Viollet/REX ShutterstockPhotograph: Roger Viollet/REX ShutterstockFerruccio Bonavia2016-04-12T11:00:07ZSir Peter Maxwell Davies obituaryhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/14/sir-peter-maxwell-davies-obituary
One of the great British composers and a former Master of the Queen’s Music<p>Peter Maxwell Davies, who has died aged 81 of leukaemia, was a huge figure in British postwar music – and a deeply enigmatic one. Through his staggering productivity as a composer, his visibility as a conductor and as someone with a high profile who was always willing to sign petitions for good causes, he seemed in one sense ubiquitous. Yet, in another he was a remote and elusive figure, his monk-like austerity and seriousness out of place in an era of conspicuous superfluity. He lived far away from the centres of culture, in Orkney, for much of the time in a remote clifftop house on Hoy which for many years had no electricity.</p><p>His cultural framework, though wide, was also remote. He sought out only things that would fortify his inner world – St Thomas Aquinas and the architecture of Filippo Brunelleschi were two favourite sources – while those things that simply cross everybody’s path, such as the latest novel, exhibition or (God forbid) pop song, held no interest for him.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/14/sir-peter-maxwell-davies-obituary">Continue reading...</a>Peter Maxwell DaviesClassical musicCultureMusicScotlandUK newsManchesterSalfordHarrison BirtwistleIgor StravinskyWelsh National OperaMon, 14 Mar 2016 16:38:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/14/sir-peter-maxwell-davies-obituaryPhotograph: Murdo Macleod for the GuardianPhotograph: Murdo Macleod for the GuardianIvan Hewett2016-03-14T16:38:33ZStravinsky: The Soldier’s Tale CD review – neat and crisphttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/03/stravinsky-the-soldiers-tale-cd-review-yang-child-falletta
<p>Yang/Child/Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players/Falletta <br>(Naxos)</p><p>From Jean Cocteau to Jeremy Irons, via John Gielgud and Gérard Depardieu, the list of actors to have appeared in recordings of <a draggable="true" href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/igor-stravinsky">Stravinsky</a>’s unclassifiable theatre piece is a hugely distinguished one. This latest version of the complete hour-long work is not so starrily cast, though the narrator, Fred Child, is a well-known presenter on US classical-music radio. But perhaps because neither the three actors nor any of the seven instrumentalists hog centre stage, the fable works well on its own terms. Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz’s text is spoken in what is essentially the standard rhyming English version by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black, with a few slightly jarring updates by Pamela Berlin – the director responsible for the staging from which this recording was taken – and Child and his colleagues manage to avoid archness in their delivery. The musical performance under <a draggable="true" href="http://www.joannfalletta.com/">JoAnn Falletta</a>, with Tianwa Yang as the violinist, is neat and crisp without being too slick; perhaps occasionally it’s a bit cool, not earthy enough, but it never becomes routine.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/03/stravinsky-the-soldiers-tale-cd-review-yang-child-falletta">Continue reading...</a>Igor StravinskyClassical musicCultureMusicThu, 03 Mar 2016 18:15:11 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/03/stravinsky-the-soldiers-tale-cd-review-yang-child-fallettaPhotograph: HANDOUTPhotograph: HANDOUTAndrew Clements2016-03-03T18:15:11ZBBCSO/Wigglesworth review - video brings unexpected riches to Brittenhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/03/bbcso-wigglesworth-review-barbican-britten-stravinsky-barnabas-kelemen
<p><strong>Barbican, London<br></strong>Tal Rosner’s videos ingeniously complemented Britten’s Sea Interludes, while Barnabás Kelemen brought bags of character to Wigglesworth’s own Violin Concerto</p><p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra">The BBC Symphony Orchestra</a>’s Barbican programme under <a href="http://www.ingpen.co.uk/artist/ryan-wigglesworth/">Ryan Wigglesworth</a> included a performance of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J20ROYLZfX0&amp;list=RDJ20ROYLZfX0#t=24">Sea Interludes</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjl4_j066rY">Passacaglia</a> from Peter Grimes with a difference: each movement was accompanied by videos by <a href="http://talrosner.com/">Tal Rosner</a>, all of them being presented in London for the first time.</p><p>There’s a sense in which Britten’s interludes don’t need visuals, and indeed more or less supply their own, their titles – Dawn, Sunday Morning, Moonlight and Storm – as well as their overt inspiration in the sea off the Suffolk coast arguably providing everything required to excite the imagination. That said, Rosner counterpointed Britten’s score ingeniously, summoning up images that, if sometimes unexpectedly, proved surprisingly complementary.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/03/bbcso-wigglesworth-review-barbican-britten-stravinsky-barnabas-kelemen">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicBBC Symphony OrchestraBenjamin BrittenIgor StravinskyThu, 03 Mar 2016 15:41:54 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/03/bbcso-wigglesworth-review-barbican-britten-stravinsky-barnabas-kelemenPhotograph: Tamas Dobos/HANDOUTPhotograph: Tamas Dobos/HANDOUTGeorge Hall2016-03-03T15:41:54ZRobert Craft obituaryhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/17/robert-craft
Conductor and writer who devoted much of his working life to the composer Stravinsky<p>Robert Craft, who has died aged 92, was a musician and critic of extraordinary gifts. He was a remarkably fine conductor, making two recordings of the major works of Arnold Schoenberg, alongside many recordings of Mozart, Schütz, Monteverdi, Webern and Stravinsky. Through these, and as the conductor of the Evenings on the Roof concerts and <a href="http://www.mondayeveningconcerts.org" title="">Monday Evening Concerts</a> in Los Angeles, he played an important role in broadening American musical taste in the 1950s and 60s.</p><p>He was an acute and sometimes acidulous critic, usually in the New York Review of Books, where he displayed his taste for abstruse vocabulary (he referred on one occasion to “luteofulvous” Italian wine – that is tawny yellow in colour) and a fondness for puns (he once praised a soprano’s coo-de-grace). And he was the author of several volumes of critical essays, as well as a travel book, Places: A Travel Companion for Music and Art Lovers (2000). But these were only sideshows to the real drama of Craft’s life.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/17/robert-craft">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicNew YorkCultureMusicUS newsBooksIgor StravinskyTue, 17 Nov 2015 17:32:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/nov/17/robert-craftPhotograph: Erich Auerbach/Getty ImagesRobert Craft, right, with Igor Stravinsky during a recording session at the BBC in London. Photograph: Erich Auerbach/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Erich Auerbach/Getty ImagesRobert Craft, right, with Igor Stravinsky during a recording session at the BBC in London. Photograph: Erich Auerbach/Getty ImagesIvan Hewett2015-11-17T17:32:33ZKey Igor Stravinsky work found after 100 yearshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/06/igor-stravinsky-lost-work-emerges-after-100-years
Stephen Walsh, a world expert on the composer, tells how lost score was found in piles of dusty manuscripts<p>An important early orchestral work by one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, thought for more than 100 years to have been irretrievably lost, has turned up at last in a pile of old manuscripts in a back room of the <a href="http://istud.conservatory.ru/" title="">St Petersburg Conservatoire</a>.</p><p>Igor Stravinsky composed his <em>Pogrebal’naya Pesnya</em> (<em>Funeral Song</em>) in memory of his teacher, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, shortly after Rimsky’s death in June 1908. The 12-minute work was performed only once, in a Russian symphony concert conducted by Felix Blumenfeld in the Conservatoire in January 1909, but was always thought to have been destroyed in the 1917 revolutions or the civil war that followed.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/06/igor-stravinsky-lost-work-emerges-after-100-years">Continue reading...</a>Igor StravinskyClassical musicRussiaMusicCultureWorld newsEuropeSat, 05 Sep 2015 23:05:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/06/igor-stravinsky-lost-work-emerges-after-100-yearsPhotograph: Roger Viollet/RexStravinsky in exile: the expatriate modernist was regarded as a non-person in the Soviet Union. Photograph: Roger Viollet/RexPhotograph: Roger Viollet/RexStravinsky in exile: the expatriate modernist was regarded as a non-person in the Soviet Union. Photograph: Roger Viollet/RexStephen Walsh2015-09-05T23:05:14Z